1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to preventing timeout. More particularly, it relates to preventing timeout of a browser in a client/server system.
2. Background Art
Java Servlets are used in conjunction with web browsers. The web browser acts as the client. The servlet resides on the server side. When an event occurs on a web page, such as clicking on a “submit” button, user-entered data on the page, such as information to make an on-line purchase of goods, may be sent to the servlet for processing. The servlet then receives that data and takes appropriate actions, such as verifing the credit card number and checking inventory to make sure the purchase can be fulfilled.
If the servlet takes a lengthy period of time to process that data, the web browser may time-out and show an error message to the effect that the page being requested can not be obtained or that communication was lost with the web server. The servlet will eventually finish processing the user's data, but because of the timeout, the web page that the servlet returns to the browser after the data has been processed will go undisplayed.
Even if the data is able to be processed within the time-out period enforced by the browser, the processing may still be lengthy. Without a monitoring system that uses words and/or a pictorial to indicate the progress of the data processing to the user, the user would only see an hourglass while the mouse is hovering over the browser. This has been a source of frustration for users encountering this phenomenon.
It is an object of the invention to provide a system and method for avoiding premature timeout of a browser while awaiting completion of an application.